


Happy Scars

by anactualforrealadult



Series: Trans Zuko AU [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Bisexual Sokka (Avatar), Body Dysphoria, Gay Zuko (Avatar), M/M, Medical Inaccuracies, Scars, Surgery recovery, Trans Zuko (Avatar), Zuko (Avatar) is a Good Parent, also azula got redeemed but thats not really part of the story, and sokka is daddy, and zuko wanted in, bc i dont know shit about shit, bc izumi is four, conversations about, dubiously graphic scene with childbirth, flashbacks to pregnant zuko, its mostly fluff, no beta we die like men, non-sexualized discussions of breasts, oh and momo has a knife, sokka and zuko are great dads, top surgery gets invented, zuko is baba
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26170486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anactualforrealadult/pseuds/anactualforrealadult
Summary: In a conversation about the new scars on her father's chest, Izumi asks for the story of the "scars" lower on his waist, near the small pouch of skin on his lower abdomen that never quite went away after she was born.  Zuko thinks back about his daughter's birth, the fear and excitement leading up to it, and the joy that came after.Trans Zuko AU
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Trans Zuko AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1900492
Comments: 57
Kudos: 394





	Happy Scars

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know shit about shit please don't come for me  
> just really wanted a happy fic about trans zuko being pregnant and zukka being great parents  
> if you feel that something is like wildly inaccurate i will accept constructive criticism and try to fix it  
> Izumi is smol so she has only a very basic understanding about how being trans works, like different people have different bodies and even though her dads have different bodies they are both still boys bc they say so

Zuko leaned back on his beach towel and breathed in the salty ocean air. The sun was high in the sky and the bright rays warmed his bare chest. It was still an unfamiliar feeling, having the sun and the wind dance across his body with no fabric covering him and constricting his lungs. He let his fingers very gently grace over the two lines of stitches where his breasts had been a mere three weeks ago. This was the first week after surgery where he was healed enough to take off his gauze bandages for good, and he finally felt _right_.

The healers of the Northern Water Tribe had been experimenting with surgery to remove breast tissue for several years, with the purpose of eliminating cancerous tumors growing there. Sokka had immediately thought of another use for the surgery, and just a few months ago he and Zuko had managed to convince the palace head healer that the process had been perfected enough that it would be safe for the Fire Lord to undertake the surgery. She finally relented, and the team of Northern healers arrived soon after. Zuko’s nerves were outweighed by his excitement, and when he awoke from the surgery he sobbed tears of relief. 

Now they were on Ember Island, Zuko being given strict orders to relax and let his body heal before returning to anything resembling work. For once, he was happy to comply. Sokka had been wanting them to take a real family vacation anyway, and Izumi was finally big enough to learn how to swim in the ocean waters without help from her dads.

As if she was reading Zuko’s thoughts, the four year old came bounding across the sand and dived on to her father’s lap.

“I found you Baba!” Her blue eyes sparkled in the morning sun, and Zuko pushed back strands of inky black hair from her face.

“Good morning my love.” He leaned forward to nuzzle his nose against hers. She pushed back against him, accidentally brushing his stitches. Zuko let out a hiss and pulled back.

“Sorry Baba, can I kiss it better?” Zuko chuckled and nodded, letting her give light kisses a few inches above the tender area, just like he and Sokka do for her own injuries. 

“All better, thank you baby.” Izumi beamed and leaned up for another nose nuzzle, more carefully this time. Zuko indulged her, not having the will power to deny his daughter anything she asked for. She was his whole world.

“Baba?” Izumi questioned after pulling back. “Are your stitches gonna leave scars?”

“They will. Happy scars, to add to my large collection.” Izumi giggled. Both of her dads had a large assortment of scars from their lives, and Izumi was enamored with all of them. They had taught her the difference between their “happy scars” and “sad scars”, the scars that held positive or negative memories. 

“Tell me your scar stories again!” Zuko laughed, unsurprised by the request. She loved hearing the stories of the most obvious scars she saw every day.

“I think you know them well enough that you could tell them to me! Go on.” He took her hand and brought it to his left eye.

“You got that one from a super mean bad guy!” Izumi exclaimed, carefully tracing the edge. 

He moved her hand to a thin jagged line on his right shoulder. “This one?”

“Momo did that one after stealing a knife from Daddy!”

Zuko chuckled at the memory and moved to the starburst in the middle of his chest.

“Auntie Zula did that one before she learned how to make good choices.” She said with a comically serious face. “She said she was sorry later.”

Her father nodded, and allowed Izumi to keep moving her hand to various spots, telling the stories of each one. She ended by poking at the bottom on his foot.

“You got that one here at the beach! You stepped on some broken glass and Daddy had to carry you all the way home!” Zuko smiled. Even though the memory was a physically painful one, it still was considered a ‘happy scar’. It had happened the previous summer and Sokka had tried to distract him from the pain by making jokes about his delicate husband swooning and needing a big strong man to take care of him. The jokes had also served to distract Izumi from the gruesome gash as Sokka carried Zuko bridal style. It had worked, keeping her from crying at the sight of her injured father.

“You have such a good memory darling!” Zuko placed a kiss on Izumi’s head. “What do you think the story should be for my new scars?”

His daughter thought for a moment. “I dunno.” She shrugged.

“Well, do you remember why we said Baba had to get surgery?”

Izumi lit up again. “Baba needed to get his boobies taken off!”

Zuko snorted at the very direct language. “Yes, do you remember why they needed to come off?”

“Because Baba doesn’t need them anymore! He’s all done with them!”

It was the best explanation they could come up with without getting into the intricacies of the trans experience and Zuko’s dysphoria. “Yes, Baba needed them when you were a baby, but you’re a big girl now so I decided to it was time for them to come off.”

She giggled and kept roaming her hands around his body, seeking out smaller nicks and spots that didn’t have proper stories attached to them. Her hands came to a stop near his hips, tracing marks near the small pouch of skin that never quite went away after Izumi was born. 

“Baba, what are these scars from?” Her brow was furrowed, having never considered the lightning shaped pale marks before.

Zuko smiled wide. “Those aren’t real scars baby. Those are called stretch marks.”

“Stretch marks?” She looked up in confusion, and Zuko nodded.

“Grown-ups get stretch marks when they grow in new places. When you are little you are growing all the time and your skin is used to it. When you get big your body isn’t as stretchy anymore, so you get stretch marks in the places you grow.”

“Well why did your body grow right there? It doesn’t look big to me, it looks flat like Daddy’s belly.” She pat her father’s stomach for emphasis.

He laughed. “Well it’s not big anymore, but it had to grow bigger when you were busy growing inside of me.”

“I used to be in your belly!?” Izumi giggled with excitement. No matter how many times they told her, she always seemed to marvel at the fact that she was once inside Zuko’s body, just like how her cousins used to be in Auntie Katara’s belly.

Zuko tickled her side, earning him more giggles. “Yes, baby. You used to be in my belly. You started out really, really, tiny, like the little pieces of sand on the beach.” He let some sand sift through his fingers for emphasis and Izumi watched with wide eyes. “And then you started growing bigger and bigger, and I could feel you moving inside of me.”

“What did I feel like?” Zuko thought for a moment.

_The first time he felt Izumi move inside him, he had cried. The pregnancy had been his idea, but between morning sickness and the achy tiredness, there were days when he wondered if it had been a bad idea after all. He could barely focus on meetings and generally felt like shit. Sokka had been nothing if not supportive, offering constant encouragement and back rubs. He had also taken on some of Zuko’s workload, the Fire Lord’s personal healer worried that too much stress would be dangerous for the safety of the baby. Zuko had been lying in bed, not succeeding in relaxing like he had been ordered, feeling utterly useless. He felt very subtle movement in his abdomen, and chalked it up to gas or his never settling stomach. But after a moment, the feeling became more like fluttering, like a little fish moving around. The realization struck him as he placed a hand on his barely rounded belly. He felt the movement again, and tears came streaming down his face. There really was life inside of him. There was a child growing in his body and in a few short months he would be able to hold them in his arms. Sokka wasn’t able to feel the fluttering quite as strongly, but he cried too when he returned from his meeting_

“You felt really wiggly most of the time, like a little koi fish.” He smiled, remembering. “When you got a little bigger, I could feel you tumbling around inside like Aunt Ty Lee doing a gymnastics routine. Sometimes I could feel you kicking, like you were getting ready to get out into the world and run around.”

Izumi listened with rapt attention. “Then what happened Baba?”

“Well, then you got sooo big and my body had to stretch to make sure you could fit!” Zuko led her fingers back to the lines on his side, tracing the wavy paths.

_Healer Yoru had known Zuko his whole life, had even helped explain his bleeding when it started just months before his banishment. When she said that the Fire Lord needed to go on partial bed rest and be completely removed from the stresses of the palace in the last three months of his pregnancy, he didn’t dare argue with her. He and Sokka had come to Ember Island, with friends visiting occasionally to celebrate some final hurrahs before the baby came. Uncle Iroh had taken over Fire Lord duties, but was prepared to travel to meet his grandchild at a moment’s notice. The days had passed painfully slow, Zuko experiencing a new level of discomfort with each one. He was nervous, sure, but was just ready for the whole situation to be over. His dysphoria was less than it had been back at the palace, no longer surrounded by staring eyes, but there were still days where he just cried, drifting in and out of a dissociated state. Only Sokka’s soft hands and words helped to ground him. His callused hands slowly stroked Zuko’s stomach, whispering how brave his husband was, how strong he was carrying their child, how grateful he was for such an incredible man. The baby wanted to be included sometimes, and would do graceful tumbles under Sokka’s hands. Eventually Zuko would be persuaded to get out of bed to join his husband on the beach, and he would meditate in the warm sun, letting the salty air fill his lungs and tension leave on the exhale._

“Your belly must have been _huge_ Baba! Did you look like Auntie Katara when Tenzin was in her belly?”

Zuko couldn’t help but laugh. Tenzin had been a very small baby, and Katara had been almost half the size Zuko reached at the end. Izumi had gotten Sokka’s traits, nearly nine pounds when she was born, and growing more rapidly than her youngest cousin. At four and a half, she was nearly as tall as six year old Kya.

“I was even bigger! And then you got too big to fit inside anymore, and Healer Yoru decided you needed to come out or else I was gonna pop!” It was true, Izumi was more than a week overdue despite all of Zuko and Sokka’s attempts to coax her out, and Yoru almost had to induce labor before their daughter finally decided she was ready to make an appearance. 

Izumi giggled. “So she helped you get me out? So I could keep growing?”

“That’s right baby, you still wanted to grow but there wasn’t any room left inside me.” He placed a kiss on her head.

“Did it hurt? Were you really scared? Bumi said Aunt Katara yelled a lot when Tenzin was born.”

“It did, and I was, but I was also really, really, excited to meet you. I was so happy that I could actually look at you, and Daddy would be able to hold you. A bit of pain was worth getting to see your beautiful face.” Zuko gently cupped his daughter’s face in his hands and she leaned into the touch for a moment. Then she quickly stood up and moved off his lap.

“That was a good story Baba, I’m gonna go find some seashells to show Daddy when he comes down!” Zuko watched his daughter run off to the edge of the water, already searching for precious treasures. He let his mind fall fully into the memory of Izumi’s birth.

_Zuko had an exceptionally long first stage of labor. Long enough that the moon had set and risen again once Yoru finally gave him herbs to get things moving faster. By the time it came for the hard work, Zuko was utterly exhausted, unable to focus on anything but the pain. Sokka had sat behind him, offering encouraging words and kneading his shoulders. Zuko couldn’t tell how much time had passed any more, but his inner fire suggested that the sun might be rising soon. He cried as he leaned back against his husband, mind swirling with fear during the few moments he had between pains. He felt completely out of his depth, praying to every spirit that this agony would be over soon, and that he was doing the right things and wasn’t hurting the baby in his attempts to get them out. Yoru had assured him that his body knew exactly what it was supposed to do and would help lead him, but Zuko only felt lost. He thrashed against his husband and whimpered that he couldn’t do it, he couldn’t keep going, every nerve in his body alight with pain._

_Yoru gently took one of Zuko’s hands out of his husbands and led it between his legs. He gasped, suddenly feeling something round and vaguely fuzzy just sitting between them. His baby’s head. The healer used a calm, soothing voice, and assured Zuko that it was almost over, his baby would be in his arms in moments. He couldn’t help but laugh with delight. It was a real person, not just some strange creature that’s been sitting in his body for the majority of the year. His and Sokka’s child. A little piece of them both. If someone had asked him years ago if he thought he would ever be moments away from holding a child he had carried, he would have laughed in their face like he was laughing now._

_He couldn’t help but continue laughing as the pain started again, but he barely felt it. His whole focus was on the tiny head that was slowly moving to sit in his hand, and suddenly it wasn’t just the head, it was the full body, and his daughter was now in his arms. Laughter was now laced with tears as the sun peaked over the horizon, pure emotion filling his body, erasing everything he had felt up to that moment. He slowly registered that Sokka was crying too, resting his head on Zuko’s shoulder, arms coming around to wrap around the ones holding their child. His heart felt so full, looking down at this tiny body wriggling in his arms, a little discolored from the effort of birth, but making her presence known with cries from healthy lungs. Zuko felt Sokka murmur a chuckled comment against his neck about how their baby had definitely gotten Zuko’s temper with cries as loud as that. He barely had time to be mad at his husband’s tease, because his child had briefly opened her eyes. Every book on babies he read had stated that most babies’ eyes were a soft blue at birth, with their true color forming over the next few weeks. He had a feeling that these eyes were not going to change much, matching the icy blues of her father._

_“Welcome to the world, Izumi,” Zuko whispered as he stroked the baby’s soft cheek. They had decided on names weeks ago, and as much as he wanted a boy to name after his uncle, Zuko had long suspected that they were having a girl. “We love you so much, and we are going to love you your whole life.”_

“Everything ok babe?”

Zuko shook himself back to the present at the sound of Sokka’s voice. The warrior’s voice was filled with concern, and Zuko realized that there were tears coming down his cheeks. He wiped them away with a smile.

“Just thinking about the day Izumi was born.” Sokka settled in the sand next to his husband, nuzzling into his side. A hand came to settle on Zuko’s hip, rubbing slow circles into the skin. They looked out together at their daughter playing in the sand near the water. She had abandoned her search for seashells in favor of digging a hole in the sand that she sat in, squealing in delight when the waves washed over and filled the space around her.

Sokka pressed a soft kiss to Zuko’s temple. “Thank you for giving me an incredible kid.” Warm lips whispered with tenderness. Zuko melted into the touch.

“You helped with that too, couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Yeah, but you did most of the work.”

Zuko hummed in affirmation. “I suppose that’s true.”

“Especially when you made that pros and cons list for having a baby.” Sokka chuckled. 

Zuko snorted, remembering the day he presented his professionally made list to his husband. Pros and cons lists were Sokka’s thing, and Zuko decided to use them to his favor when trying to convince Sokka to agree to his idea. It was a few years after their marriage, and Zuko had confessed the desire to carry a child. It wasn’t something he had ever wanted to do before, and Sokka had come to terms with it a long time ago, insisting that he would be more than happy to adopt when they were both ready. But something in Zuko had changed. Perhaps seeing the wonder of Aang and Katara’s children, tiny combinations of their friends. The couple had created entirely new people out of seemingly nothing. What an incredible thing. The idea shook Zuko to his core and brought out a longing he never thought he would feel.

Sokka had not been easy to convince. Ever since coming to terms with the idea of not having a biological child with Zuko, he had filled his mind with all the reasons why it would be a bad idea. So when his husband brought up the request, Sokka was on edge. After a frustrating discussion, Zuko had taken some time to himself, and constructed the pros and cons list. The cons list was long; Zuko would have to take extended time off from Fire Lord duties, Zuko might experience worse than usual dysphoria, they would have to find some way to explain the pregnancy to officials who weren’t aware that Zuko could even carry. Everything on the cons list were valid concerns. The pros list contained exactly one item. When the lists were presented to Sokka, the warrior had laughed deeply, and then agreed to grow their family.

Izumi called out to her dads, and Sokka pulled Zuko up from the beach towel. The two men walked hand in hand to their daughter. The sparkling smile of the little girl set Zuko’s heart aflame. Sokka scooped Izumi up and spun her around. They waded deeper into the water, Zuko sticking to the edge of the shore, his toes feeling the cold touch of the waves. Now waist deep, Sokka threw his child a few feet from his chest, Izumi squealing with delight. She swam back and demanded to be thrown again. Zuko watched the game repeat, his chest filled with pride. He thought about the single item from his pros list, the one thing that convinced Sokka to go on this journey. The lists hung in his office now, always reminding him where they started.

_Operation: Baby?_

_Pros List_

  1. _Zuko and Sokka get to have a child together_



**Author's Note:**

> welp, this is what happens when i write fanfiction in the daylight.  
> Trans Zuko Rights


End file.
